In 2015 when they learned they would be receiving a tax refund, David and Diane Schubarth signed up for a Rainy Day Savings Account (a matched emergency savings account) with New Ventures Maine. They learned that they were eligible for the account where their $300 savings would be matched dollar for dollar. Money is usually pretty tight but the tax refund provided them with the extra money to get started.

After that David and Diane put $20 away each month in their account. After several months they noticed that monthly saving had become a habit. They also realized that their balance was growing faster than anticipated.  Thus they had funds to pay for unexpected medication costs in addition to buying four tires.

Diane also took NVME’s My Money Works class to help build her savings skills. She learned about savings and lots more. “It helped me to learn things that I didn’t know that I didn’t know – especially about credit.” In the class, she ordered her free credit report, learned how to read it and how to fix any mistakes.

She also began tracking family spending to see where the money was going. “I thought that we were being pretty careful with our money. In the class we were asked to write everything we spent money on in a notebook. I started to notice how we were spending money on things, like fast food, that I thought wasn’t a big expense. After a few weeks I saw that it was adding up to a lot. We could just cut back a little bit and have more money to save each month.”

Currently they have funds available in their account and are still saving. Diane shares that “The program is perfect if an unexpected emergency comes up and it helps you learn how to save.”

NOTE: The Rainy Day Savings Program is a program of New Ventures Maine. The Schubarths learned about it while getting their taxes done at a Western Maine CASH site.